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Freedom Book of the Month for April 2001:
Cato Handbook for Congress: Policy Recommendations for the 107th Congress
from the Cato Institute, 2001, paperback, 680 pp.
Thirty years ago, leftist agitators often carried around and distributed copies of "Quotations from Chairman Mao." They referred to that work as "the little red book," and often turned to it for ideological guidance. "Cato's Handbook for Congress" should be called "the BIG red book." It weighs in at 680 pages, but it is perfectly formulated to serve a similar need in the libertarian movement. It's updated every two years, and the edition for the 107th Congress is now available.
The handbook is, theoretically, intended to influence the 535 members of the national legislative bodies. It's useful for that purpose and many others, but its effectiveness is enhanced when the book is placed in the hands of concerned citizens and libertarian activists. Let me explain:
Your representative or senator has a copy of this book. He or she may look at it, or may not. He or she also has a mailbox ... and every last envelope that enters it is opened, and the contents are read. Ditto for email and phone messages. Elected politicians look for trends; they look for similarities; they try to determine which way their constituency is headed, so that they can sprint to the front of the parade and lead it.
The handbook can help set the format of the parade. It makes specific policy recommendations. It backs those recommendations with facts. It offers up arguments. It's like sheet music for a choral performance. Some of us are baritones and some are sopranos, but if we are singing the same song, the same notes, then we are a loud, euphonious presence, not a cacophony.
Letters to the representatives. Letters to editors. Well-reasoned arguments in debate. This book is a great tool for creating an image of a united movement with a direction -- something that elicits more attention from policymakers than a herd that makes a lot of noise, but all of it different enough to leave the actual message unclear and avoidable.
The handbook is also great as a basic tool of self-education. You're likely to learn about the existence of issues you had never given thought to, and answers that had never occurred to you before. It includes 64 chapters, each dedicated to specific proposals on matters ranging from agricultural policy to welfare (alphabetically speaking). Topically, the issues are broken down into areas of government reform, federal agencies, civil liberties, money and banking, domestic policy, regulation, energy and the environment, foreign and defense policy and international economic policy.
My copy of "the big red book" has instantly become a permanent desktop fixture. I expect it to enable to me to write more persuasive editorials and political communications, and to give me an instant run up to speed when I run into an issue that is new to me. Every libertarian activist should have a copy of The "Cato Handbook for Congress."
Order the "Cato Handbook for Congress" from Laissez Faire Books for $18.95
edited by Thomas L. Knapp
February 2001: Crypto by Steven Levy
January 2001: Total Freedom by Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Freedom Book of the Year 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
December 2000: The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto
November 2000: Escape from Leviathan by J.C. Lester
October 2000: The Art of Political War by David Horowitz
September 2000: An Enemy of the State by Justin Raimondo
August 2000: The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell
July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch
June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman
May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben
March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand
February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler
January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood
Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz
November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy
September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe
July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant
May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz
April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille
March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary
February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
, founded in 1995, is now a part of ISIL.
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